New NVIDIA Specialized Pascal 1060-based Cryptocoin Mining GPUs Photographed

[R-T-B]

Pictures of the new Pascal 1060-based Cryptocoin-specific mining GPUs have surfaced on the Chinese tech site expreview.com. They look markedly different than their gaming variety, not only lacking any display outputs (as expected), but also lacking any fan or active cooling at all and merely having a passive aluminum heatsink to cool it. It is likely that it could expect external active cooling or high airflow cases to function properly.



The design also seems to sport a custom PCB, and a single PCI-e power connector, suggesting a reasonably low power draw. The site also hints at a 1080 "mining edition" GPU being in the works, but has no photographic evidence on that front.

Expreview appears to have a lot of them already set up in a good quality rack-miner style setup, so feel free to oogle over this article's photographs if you happen to be interested in the Cryptocoin "wave" as of late.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[R-T-B]

Speaking as a former miner, that heatsink looks chincy as all hell, and reminds me of the first bitcoin ASICs. I wouldn't be surprised (well, that much) if they used that weird copper colored thermal paste that behaved more like bubblegum than thermalpaste too.

Ah, relevant photo from my old Zeusminer:

 

[Grings]

I'd like to see display output-less cards like this, but with regular pci back panel plates (and a better heatsink) for sli/crossfire/dx12 multi gpu(lol) use

Obviously they would need to be cheaper than a regular GPU for it to be worthwhile

 

[[XC] Oj101]

I'd like to see display output-less cards like this, but with regular pci back panel plates (and a better heatsink) for sli/crossfire/dx12 multi gpu(lol) use

Obviously they would need to be cheaper than a regular GPU for it to be worthwhile

They're cheaper alright, but the MOQ is simply mental.

 

[Duality92]

They should've made them with a x1 connector a 8-pin PCIE.

 

[R-T-B]

They should've made them with a x1 connector a 8-pin PCIE.

Meh, most miners downclock before OC, so the power connector is irrelevant to a lot of them. But the PCIe connector is a good point.

 

[Duality92]

Meh, most miners downclock before OC, so the power connector is irrelevant to a lot of them. But the PCIe connector is a good point.

Yeah, but they'll draw over 75W still probably. a 6-pin is limited to 75W theoretically, while the 8-pin is 150W. PCIE x1 is only good for like a dozen watts.

 

[silentbogo]

They should've made them with a x1 connector a 8-pin PCIE.

In most cases it will either go into a set of risers, or a specialized server board, featured on many PC news websites just few days ago.
https://videocardz.com/newz/first-look-at-pascal-based-gpu-cryptocurrency-mining-station
Probably based on aging N3050 or N3150

 

[Steevo]

Why so many PCIe lanes? Not like you could use it for anything after....


It's probably a server card with the cover off.

 

[silentbogo]

Not like you could use it for anything after....

F@H, or any CUDA/OpenCL number crunching, data mining etc.
Maybe running a low-latency GPGPU database w/ near 36GB of in-memory data, or some other not so exotic stuff (e.g. rendering).
Also - sell it to chinese hackers to crack password hashes ))

 

[HTC]

Let me make a few assumptions:

1 - the fact these cards have less ports should make it cheaper to produce / buy
2 - it's possible this will reduce the price "normal" versions as they will no longer be bought for this purpose
3 - it's possible these cards have higher compute power then their "normal" versions, thus making them more expensive and counter-balancing #1
4 - with #3, these cards may end up more expensive then their "normal" versions but people will still buy these over "normal" versions, thus enabling #2 much more easily

Any of these flat out wrong?

 

[TheGuruStud]

Let me make a few assumptions:

1 - the fact these cards have less ports should make it cheaper to produce / buy
2 - it's possible this will reduce the price "normal" versions as they will no longer be bought for this purpose
3 - it's possible these cards have higher compute power then their "normal" versions, thus making then more expensive and counter-balancing #1
4 - with #3, these cards may end up more expensive then their "normal" versions but people will still buy these over "normal" versions, thus enabling #2 much more easily

Any of these flat out wrong?

The GPUs are identical and the price will be substantially cheaper. Nvidia is just mad AMD is selling cards, but now that AMD can't keep up, they want a slice of the pie. And they know no one can resell it later, so gamers will still be buying their crap.

Oh, boy, buy a 1080 miner card to do the same work as a 580 LOL. And the 4GB ones won't even work in the near future. Nvidia knows exactly what they're doing.

 

[HTC]

The GPUs are identical and the price will be substantially cheaper. Nvidia is just mad AMD is selling cards, but now that AMD can't keep up, they want a slice of the pie. And they know no one can resell it later, so gamers will still be buying their crap.

Oh, boy, buy a 1080 miner card to do the same work as a 580 LOL. And the 4GB ones won't even work in the near future. Nvidia knows exactly what they're doing.

Not following: please elaborate!

 

[WithoutWeakness]

Yeah, but they'll draw over 75W still probably. a 6-pin is limited to 75W theoretically, while the 8-pin is 150W. PCIE x1 is only good for like a dozen watts.

You also get 75 watts from the PCIe slot. With a 6-pin power connector you get a total of 150W. With dual 6-pins or a single 8-pin you get 225W total.

 

[Steevo]

Not following: please elaborate!

They sell a 1080 mining card that only does mining, it has no resale value once done or when the ASIC miners are out, but a 580, 480 or other card will still have value and can still play games.

Nvidia will find a way to screw their customers again and again and many will "love that feature".

 

[gasolina]

there are 470/570 480/580 that are only for miners like the orge or panda mining one

 

[dat_boi]

AMD cards are only good at a certain bandwidth heavy algorithm which doesn't even depend on their GPU architecture, just the bus width and the memory frequency, for everything else which matters at mining like power efficiency AMD is worse than Nvidia. If they both build up cards for mining Nvidia will always have the edge, AMD can't really compete.

This move from Nvidia seems more like an attempt to kill the mining for ordinary people all together. These cards aren't even supposed to be sold to consumers, therefore consumers won't eventually be able to compete and earn some money with the ordinary cards.

 

[yotano211]

Not following: please elaborate!

Coins have a certain file that it writes to the graphics card. The size right now is nearing 3gb and all of thosee 1060 3gb versions will be no good to mine ethereum. Those 1060 3gb can mine another coin like zcash but once that file is over 3gb, ethereum mining is no good.

 

[ps000000]

People cant buy any vga above 1050 in my country (Thailand) all sold out and 2nd hand VGA price go sky high.

 

[Fluffmeister]

Smart move from Nv, don't let Advanced Mining Devices have all the fun, whilst they still wait for the competition to turn up on their best selling gaming cards.

 

[R-T-B]

They sell a 1080 mining card that only does mining, it has no resale value once done or when the ASIC miners are out, but a 580, 480 or other card will still have value and can still play games.

That's silly. GPU mining will become less profitable of course, but ASICs is not the reason, as one can just move to another ASIC resistant coin if one falls. It's happened time and again.

Coins have a certain file that it writes to the graphics card. The size right now is nearing 3gb and all of thosee 1060 3gb versions will be no good to mine ethereum. Those 1060 3gb can mine another coin like zcash but once that file is over 3gb, ethereum mining is no good.

Man, I remember back in the bitcoin days memory size was basically irrelevant. Times have changed.

Yeah, but they'll draw over 75W still probably. a 6-pin is limited to 75W theoretically, while the 8-pin is 150W. PCIE x1 is only good for like a dozen watts.

Doubt they'd overspec a 6-pin frankly. Especially considering a 6-pin can actually deliver way over 75W in practice. It's all about cost cutting, at any rate.

 

[Chaitanya]

Do miners really buy nVidia cards in first place? even back in days of Bitcoin it was AMD that was hit by miners and nvidia cards werent prefered at all. Even today its AMD GPUs hit by shortage not nVidia cards.

 

[Shihab]

I'd like to see display output-less cards like this, but with regular pci back panel plates (and a better heatsink) for sli/crossfire/dx12 multi gpu(lol) use

Obviously they would need to be cheaper than a regular GPU for it to be worthwhile

So, cheap Teslas?

I'm with you. What little non-enterprise, GPGPU applications out there could use such products. Though I highly doubt that this market, even with the addition of SLI/Crossfire users, is big enough to encourage AMD and NV to cater for.

 

[R-T-B]

Do miners really buy nVidia cards in first place? even back in days of Bitcoin it was AMD that was hit by miners and nvidia cards werent prefered at all. Even today its AMD GPUs hit by shortage not nVidia cards.

Both are being hit this go around, one just harder than the other.

 

[cdawall]

The GPUs are identical and the price will be substantially cheaper. Nvidia is just mad AMD is selling cards, but now that AMD can't keep up, they want a slice of the pie. And they know no one can resell it later, so gamers will still be buying their crap.

Oh, boy, buy a 1080 miner card to do the same work as a 580 LOL. And the 4GB ones won't even work in the near future. Nvidia knows exactly what they're doing.

A bios modded 580 can pull 30mh/s or the same as a stock 1070. The rumored mining 1080 has been tweaked for 60mh/s I'm Ethereum so as fast as two 580s oh and get this at an 80+% power savings.